Fort Scott’s Mercy Health Center duly impressed those studying the needs of Allen County Hospital on a tour April 23.
Owned by the Sisters of Mercy Health System, the hospital built anew in 2002 after years of renovations to its former downtown site.
As with the Allen County endeavor, hospital administrators hired a consultant to evaluate its old hospital several years back, said Mary Ann Arnott, chair of the Allen County Hospital Facilities Committee.
“The cost of a remodel was somewhat less than building new, but they felt they would save enough on utilities and repairs to make up the difference,” Arnott said.
Cost of the new hospital was $37 million. A hospital foundation raised $1 million, and “the rest was paid by the Catholic church,” Arnott said.
That left Fort Scott free and clear, Arnott said, which allows them to do “a lot of charitable work.” Mercy also receives rent from Cigna Insurance, located on the 75-acre campus on the south end of town off of Hwy 69.
Mercy incorporates an urgent care center that runs after weekday office hours for people who do not need emergency room services, but cannot wait overnight or through the weekend to see their primary care physician.
“Urgent care starts at 3:30 p.m.,” on weekdays and is open weekends so as not to conflict with traditional local providers, Arnott said.
“Urgent care is profitable for both the hospital and another private urgent care business in town,” Arnott said.
The hospital has 66 beds and 333 employees, 96 of whom are registered nurses. It includes a sleep study room and a room for palliative care for terminal patients, which has an adjoining room for family members to stay in, Arnott noted.
The hospital also runs a 12-bed rehabilitation unit for patients requiring ongoing care after such things as a stroke or car accident, Arnott said.
Mercy has a “very busy fitness center used by the public,” Arnott said. Membership is $30 per month for an individual and about $40 a month for a family, she noted.
“Their usual (hospital) census is 30 to 40” patients, Arnott said. Its local population is 8,500. Typical length of stay is 2.87 days. Allen County typically fills 13 of its 25 beds daily for an average stay of 3.7 days, said ACH CEO Joyce Heismeyer.
AT MERCY, doctors include an orthopedic and two general surgeons, an obstetrician, five family practice and one internal medicine physician. Some of the physicians have offices in the hospital.
Seven family practice, and one urologist, radiologist and general surgeon have working privileges at ACH. There are 66 registered nurses at ACH and a total staff of 165.
Some systems are the same at both facilities. ACH and Mercy both feature equal power magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and digital archiving of imagery. Mercy offers digital mammography and a more in-depth view 16-slice computed tomography (CT) scan; ACH’s is four-slice.
Mercy uses electronic medical records, committee members were told. Each patient room has a computer so that nurses complete a patient’s records there rather than at a centralized nurse’s station. Medications are checked through an electronic wrist band system. Heismeyer said Allen County has been looking into such a change, and will make it regardless of whether a new building or remodel is ultimately chosen.
STAFF at Mercy who conducted the tour told the group they would recommend a new hospital have all private rooms — its are not — for both patient satisfaction and infection control. They also recommend tile floors rather than carpet.
Mercy CEO Reta Baker said what she liked most about the new hospital was its layout — a patient can receive all services without stepping into a public hallway. The hospital is shaped like an H, Arnott said, with one hall designated public and one for patients.
Mary Kay Heard, Barbara Culbertson, Terry Sparks, Gary McIntosh and Arnott were on the tour. It was the seventh the group has taken. Of those, three were remodeled, three newly constructed and Iola’s ACH was included.
The objective of the tours is to “see what we’re surrounded with and what’s state of the art. We’re just kind of on a listening journey in this,” Arnott said. Heismeyer noted the tours have not been so much to compare facilities as to see what features ACH might like to incorporate when it remodels or rebuilds.
